Chapter 27 Pragmatics and language change

Language is always in flux. Over time new patterns can be observed that are either minor modifications to the linguistic system, as when the meaning of a lexical item changes, or major ones, as when word order changes occur. That language change occurs primarily as a result of acquisition is uncontroversial. There are, however, very different theories and discourses about how to interpret this observation. To simplify, one view assumes that change is internal or endogenous, in other words that grammars change (Kiparsky 1968) and focuses mainly on syntactic change (e.g. Lightfoot 1998): meaning change is hypothesized to be derivative of syntactic change. On this view the child is born with a rich innate universal grammar (UG) and passively selects the relevant aspects of this grammar based on input prior to the “critical period” of puberty. A representative statement is: “A grammar grows in a child from some initial state (UG), when she is exposed to primary linguistic data” (Lightfoot 2003: 107). An innovation by one child counts as a change. A competing view is that usage changes and language acquisition occurs throughout life. Change is not only internal but also external, driven by social factors and language users who are active participants in negotiation of linguistic patterning, especially meaning: “languages don’t change: people change language” (Croft 2000: 4). On this view, innovation by the individual is not change. “Changes ... are the historical events in a linguistic tradition by which practices of speaking vary over time” (Andersen 2001: 228).